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Pakistan violence: Quetta hospital under siege | Pakistan violence: Quetta hospital under siege |
(35 minutes later) | |
Gunmen have attacked a hospital in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, hours after an explosion on a bus killed at least 11 female university students. | Gunmen have attacked a hospital in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, hours after an explosion on a bus killed at least 11 female university students. |
As the wounded were being taken to the hospital, explosions were heard inside and gunmen fired from rooftops. | As the wounded were being taken to the hospital, explosions were heard inside and gunmen fired from rooftops. |
A senior city official was killed in the exchange. Security forces are surrounding the building, | A senior city official was killed in the exchange. Security forces are surrounding the building, |
Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, which has seen a surge in militant violence in recent months. | Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, which has seen a surge in militant violence in recent months. |
Some attacks are carried out by separatists and others by Islamists who oppose women's education. | |
The latest violence began when a bomb exploded on a bus carrying female students at a university . | |
"It was an improvised explosive device placed in the women university bus," police chief Zubair Mahmood said. | |
Later explosions rocked the medical centre where the students were being treated, | |
Militants armed with grenades were positioned there and exchanged fire with members of the security forces who rushed to the scene. | |
Pakistan TV says a senior Quetta official, Abdul Mansoor Khan, who had gone to the hospital to visit the wounded students, was killed in the stand-off. There are fears of more casualties. | |
No group has said it carried out either attack. | |
The violence came hours after militants carried out a rocket attack against a historic home in the Ziarat area of Balochistan, which was used by Pakistan's founding father Muhammad Ali Jinnah. | |
The house is said to have been severely damaged. | |
Last month the Taliban killed at least 11 people in an attack on security forces in Quetta. |